He added the family were “waiting for the governments to deliver” on Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release.

He told the BBC he believes the charity worker is being used as a bargaining chip in political battles that have nothing to do with her.

The 39-year-old was detained in Iran when visiting her parents with her daughter, Gabriella, who remains in the country.

In December 2017 Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson travelled to Iran to call for the release of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcllife on humanitarian grounds.

Mr Johnson had been criticised for comments he had made to a parliamentary committee in November. He told MPs that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been training journalists in the country. He later apologised for the comments.

Mr Ratcliffe said extra telephone privileges granted to Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe after the foreign secretary’s visit have been cut back after demonstrations against the Iranian regime in London last month.

What happened?

Image copyrightNazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Image caption
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held in Iran since April 2016

3 April 2016: Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is detained at an Iranian airport while travelling home to London with her young daughter.

April-June 2016: According to Mr Ratcliffe, his wife was subject to “intense interrogation” for the first two months of her imprisonment and kept in solitary confinement

September 2016: Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is sentenced to five years in prison in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court

January 2017: She loses an initial appeal against her sentence

April 2017: Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe loses a final appeal in Iran’s supreme court to overturn her sentence

December 2017: An Iranian database lists her as eligible for release

December 2017: Boris Johnson visits Tehran to call for the British-Iranian citizen’s release

About RN

Rocketnews is an aggregator of the top online news articles and stories from around the globe. Rocketnews uses news feeds from a variety on online news feed providers including Feedzilla, Yahoo, and the BBC. Addition news feed providers included online media suppliers, local and regional publications, industry journals, companies, governments, universities, PR companies, official organizations, associations, shopping guides and weblogs. Featured content providers include Reuters, Metacafe, News Corporation, About, BBC and The Sun.